Ratings & Comments
H.G. Muller, thanks for the comments. I've also been doing some testing in ChessV.
- White: Queen, Black: Queen
- White wins: 94
- Black wins: 93
- Draws: 113
- White: Griffon, Black:
- White wins: 177
- Black wins: 48
- Draws: 75
I'm currently running test on the Archbishop and Chancellor.
The Queen-Griffon was matchup is fairly lopsided in the simulations, but its close enough that that I still found it fun to play myself. I haven't tested the Griffon-Lion matchup yet either in the computer or over the board, but your results for the KaFafsW Lion make me think that it could be unplayable. I will run some tests with the Q2afsW after my current games finish running and see if this tones down the Lion sufficiently.
I see that the Lion now has become a regular 2-step area mover. I tested a Lion that was blocked more easily (KaFafsW), because it was missing the Moa path and lame Dabbabah (nD), so that only the D move was multi-path (reachable in 2 ways), by pitting it against a Queen in Fairy-Max. To my surprise the lameness did not weaken it that much compared to a KNAD: it beat the Queen by 63% in 200 games, which is only slightly smaller than the Pawn-odds score.
The balance could still be improved a little by making every square on the 'second ring' reachable through a single path only. E.g. the A squares through the F squares, (as they already are), and all others through the W squares. So that it becomes a compound of a range-two Queen and a Xiangqi Horse (Q2afsW). That would most likely still leave it stronger than a Queen, while all other replacements are weaker than Queen.
I also tried the WyasW against a normal Griffon. It was only marginally stronger. I guess it suffers a lot from the fact that the paths cross on the F squares, which means that there now are 8 squares where two of its arms can be blocked. This makes the detour over the W squares nearly as much as a liability as an asset. Furthermore, it made the piece very difficult to develop; the initial F step is really useful for sneaking between Pawns. This was quite annoying, so I would not recommend use of this piece. and stick to the regular Griffon.
Ok, thanks HG! Fergus if you can help?
Well, like you said, there is nothing for me to see. The GAME code looks OK as far as chanģing the piece set is concerned, and does work on the first ply. It was not changed between the first and second ply. This is a general Game Courier problem that only Fergus can shed light on.
@HG, Have you had time to take a look at my preset?
I've been playing a lot of this game recently (via Ai Ai), partly for my own enjoyment and partly as inspiration for my own 16x16 experiments. There are relatively few modern Chess variants played on 16x16, and for me, this game is the best example thus far.
The variety of pieces presented here is at first intimidating, but one soon realises there is a logic to everything presented here, and shortly thereafter you'll find the piece movements become natural. The balance of the initial position is excellent, with every piece finding its way into the fight without too much awkward development. Games are long -- against AI at 2 minutes/move my games take at least 400 plies, with my longest so far at 695 -- but as a large Shogi variant fanatic this doesn't bother me at all. Throughout those long games one will find drama, excitement, and plentiful opportunities for subtlety and subterfuge.
If I were very picky, I might say that I'd like to see the Rook + Camel/Bishop + Camel compounds in here, which I find really fun on a large board. Also the basic leapers -- Camel, Giraffe, Knight -- feel less impactful in a game this size. Having said that, everything works well together, and I enjoy this game tremendously.
Great! Those caching problems are always very annoying.
The idea of having it first write the Betza notation in a text edit is that you can still alter it by typing in case you want something so special that the move-entry tool does't support it. (Like a limited range of 5 squares, or a bent slider.)
I don't know what's happened: now it works!!!!!
Most probable was a problem of cache I think. Anyway, that's a nice applet. Thanks
The only suggestion I can make is that it might be possible to see what is going on through the 'Browser console' in FireFox. This shows whether any errors occur in the JavaScript program of a page. On a PC I can open it in the lower half of the screen by pressing the F12 function key and selecting the 'console' tab, or typing Ctrl + Shift + J to open it in a separate window. But I don't know if a Mac keyboard even has these keys. You might be able to get there through some menu.
If you press the button that would activate the code that is supposed to place the text, an error message might appear in the console, to report what went awry.
Another thought: have you tried to flush the browser cache (Shift + reload on my FireFox). Perhaps you are still using an old version of some JavaScript file that is still cached in your browser.
Thank you. So it's a mystery.
no text at all appear either with Safari or Firefox.I would be grateful if someone else with a Mac could try.
It works correctly for me on Mac in both Safari and Chrome.
@HG: no, no text at all appear either with Safari or Firefox.I would be grateful if someone else with a Mac could try.
What is the difference between the play-test applet and the diagram?
The Play-Test Applet is an interface page for altering the Diagram it contains, and use it in-place, or display its HTML source code so that you could post the Diagram elsewhere. In that other location it would still be an Interactive Diagram, but you can no longer change the rules by which it plays. (Unless you edit the page, of course.) In principle you could also have typed the source code of that Diagram by hand, if you knew the definition format. There is a seperate article here over Interactive Diagrams, which contains a 'Design Wizard' that also can generate source code for you. This is a bit less user-friendly (you have to complete a large form for specifying all kinds of parameters, also for defining graphics), but gives you more control over the generated Diagram than the Play-Test Applet.
Of course you can also use a hybrid method for creating a Diagram: use the Play-Test Applet to design a Diagram that is as close as possible you can get to what you want within the Applet's limitations, (e.g. everything except the promotion rules), and then edit the source code to add what it was missing. You can then post this modified source code on a page of your own (or in a comment). Or you can even paste it back into the Play-Test Applet, to test it there.
To implement Shogi-style promotions you would have to redefine the parameters maxPromote (giving the number of promotable pieces) and promoOffset (how much they shift up in the piece table when promoting), and reorder the piece definitions such that they are in the right place in the table to cause the correct promotions.
Am I doing wrong ?
Well, that the squares go blank again when you press one of the buttons is intended behavior. But the Betza notation for the cleared squares should appear in the text entry 'Betza move description' just below the table from which you select pieces. E.g. if I click the square above the star piece and press the move-only button, the text fmW should appear there. If I then click the squares diagonally above the star piece, and press capture-only, the text should change to fmWfcF. I have no Mac where I can test this, but on my PC it works with FireFox, and on my Android tablet with the Android browser it works too.
@Ben, thanks. It works now. I've posted a new chess variant already.
I try this applet but it doesn't work for me, probably I'm doing wrong.
I use the white grid, in "Move definition aid". I tick some squares, they become orange. Then if I tick any of the 3 right-side buttons, for example "both", then the orange disappear, all squares on the diagram are white again and I see nothing where a Betza notation is supposed to appear.
I've tried on a Mac with Safari and Firefox.
Am I doing wrong ?
Thanks
@HG The problem is that the piece pictures are not properly displayed. But I cannot see any bug as the end of the pregame section is the same to my two other presets that work fine. This is what I meant
@Daniel Do you see the same problem ?
What is the difference between the play-test applet and the diagram?
@HG, I don't see the problem.
I don't understand what problem you don't see. You wouldn't be posting this here if you did not see some problem.
Is there a way to have different promotion options for different pieces, as in shogi?
Not in the Play-Test-Applet. The Diagram itself of course supports it, and the Design Wizard as well. But it does require a more complex interface than the Play-Test Applet has to specify that. Because it requires the pieces to be listed in the Diagram in some specific order to associate the correct promoted form to a base piece. And the Play-Test Applet uses the order of the table from which you select the pieces. It is already a bit inconvenient to have promotion to pieces that are not initially on the board; in order to generate a Diagram or GAME code that would include those pieces you wuld have to drag those somewher on the board after having pressed the Initial Position button, but before generating the HTML or GAME code.
I am not sure how a Shogi-type promotion could be defined. Perhaps it could be done by, after defining the initial position by pressing the button, replacing all pieces in it by their promoted versions, and then hit some 'Promotion Assignment' button.
@HG, I don't see the problem. To me it seems that this preset should work like the other 2!
Is there a way to have different promotion options for different pieces, as in shogi?
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Thank you, I got it working